When we discuss Indian companies, we are discussing what

The demographic dividend and considerable GDP growth have made India a popular destination for the sea.

With the “Genuine Crafts” Indian activities, I went to the mainland to visit some companies, including payment platform Paytm, economic chain hotel OYO, Indian classified information website OLX, take-out platform Zomato, social e-commerce head players. Meesho, logistics company Dehlivery, B2B e-commerce Udaan, also have Internet companies such as Google and Xiaomi entering India.

There is another one called Sharechat, which is the most Indian-influenced part of the itinerary – no English, only Indian native content. Returning from India, I still feel the wonderful transformation of Sharechat – founder Sachdeva made an appointment application at the beginning of the business, like Facebook started. After several adjustments, the direction of Sharechat was determined on the local language social platform. Now it is Potential unicorn on the Indian content track. And, as a result, my curiosity: How do Indian entrepreneurs think and practice in the face of the “Local or Global” proposition?

I think that in China’s Internet companies, regardless of their size, they are paying attention to the current situation of the sea. The discussion of this issue may lead to the value that can be learned.

The venture capital colleagues who want to pay attention to this issue can also talk about your views.

Local VS Global? Choice of the first half of the Indian Internet

Members of the Discovery India Discovery Tour to Sharechat Company

Going Local

Indian consumers are divided into three layers: the first circle is about 100 million people, composed of urban population and rich people. The main communication language is English. The second circle is about 100 million people and can be regarded as a middle class in India. Their language is mainly English and Hindi. About 1 billion people are in the third lap, focusing on emerging Internet users in India, and communicating in local languages ​​ (Note: India has 22 official languages ​​and more than 1,600 regional dialects). Google Indian manager Shalini said, “Every Indian can communicate in 2 or 3 languages, and some 4 or 5 local languages.”

Google, Facebook and other companies initially entered India, with consumers in the first tier as the main target users. When WeChat tried to enter India in 2012, it targeted 100 million people in the second tier. Nowadays, more and more Indian companies are starting to force users in the third tier, from the first, second, and third tiers, each level, the requirements for entrepreneurs’ localization ability. higher.

Local VS Global? Choice of the first half of the Indian Internet

Tamil, one of the 22 languages ​​recognized by the Indian Constitution Source: Indian Language and Society Research Center

In the “Going local” concept, Indian companies have launched dialect services. Online education service platform Byju ‘s, takeaway company Zomato and economic chain hotel OYO and other Indian unicorn companies currently support 2 to 12 dialects. The user data of the social application ShareChat indicates that the dialect application is very popular: Sharechat offers 15 dialect content, with monthly active users reaching 45 million.

In addition to meeting the language habits of users in the third layer, Indian companies also launched hyper local related services such as e-commerce, groceries, and food distribution. India’s ultra-local business is a business in all certain areas, including restaurants, markets, malls and other products and service providers. Startups use the app to assist merchants and users, and want to build a local ecosystem that allows users to purchase necessities from nearby stores.

Local VS Global? Choice of the first half of the Indian Internet

Super local company BigBasket vending machine set up on the roadside Author’s film

For e-commerce, the popularity of smartphones allows hyper-local e-commerce to connect multiple local retailers with consumers in the third tier, combining online platforms and offline services to make users as in a short period of timeGet the service. In the e-commerce 1.0 phase, order completion may take several days, while the hyperlocalized e-commerce completion time is in minutes.

The Indian hyperlocalization market is largely driven by the increasing demand for start-ups and consumer on-demand services. Bhushan Patil, founder of Multiply Ventures and head of Ali’s former B2B business, told the sea, “In the field of food distribution and grocery store hyper-local services, there are more than a few orders per day. Among them, food distribution services cover not only the top 20 cities in India. Some companies even claim to cover 300 towns.”

Going Global

As Indian entrepreneurs become more local, their genes born to be global are still there, even increasing in size.

Since the early years of outsourcing, the Indian company’s business has been radiated abroad. Starting from software outsourcing in the ITO business, it undertakes services such as maintenance testing and software coding, and extends to the high-end BPO and KPO phases of the industry chain. The experience of software development, IT outsourcing and consulting services has helped Indian companies to understand the needs of European and American customers. Currently, 80-90% of SaaS companies in India come from overseas.

The new generation of Internet companies are holding high and hitting overseas markets. Zomato is at the forefront of the Australian take-away market and is considered to be a public comment on the Australian market, entering Italy, New Zealand, the Czech Republic and other countries in a similar way. After acquiring Softbank’s $1 billion, OYO entered 18 countries including China, the United States, and Vietnam, and the number of overseas rooms expanded to nearly 720,000. (However, this company, which is known for its quick signing and short-term completion of property renovation, may be more suitable for India, where the standard is still imaginable.) Paytm and Softbank and Yahoo launched PayPay, a QR code payment application in Japan, which was obtained within half a year. 8 million users, coverage rate is over 60%.

For the reason why Indian companies are expanding their business globally, Sairee Rahal, a board member of Paytm Payment Bank, believes that “India is a complex country. If a company can conduct business in multiple states in India, then it is also a global business. Relatively not so difficult.”

In addition to the language environment, India’s complex is also reflected in taxation. Before July 2017, India’s consumption tax was composed of national tax and state tax. Due to the inconsistent tax policies of various states, India is not a unified market. After that, India launched a unified GST (Goods And Serivces TAX) tax policy, canceled cross-state tax checkpoints, and accelerated the speed of domestic commodity circulation.

The reason why Indian startups are developing globally is also the factor of entrepreneurs. “They have a sense of globalization and have been thinking about doing business all over the world from the very beginning,” SaiRee Rahal said.

K12 Online Education Platform Byju’s founder Byju Raveendran shares the same view. “Indian entrepreneurs have a global perspective. When we start a business, we think about other countries.”

Byju’s appointed Abhishek Maheshwari, head of Disney India, in April this year as president of international business. Two months later, it joined forces with Disney to launch a learning app to expand into other English-speaking countries such as the US, UK and Australia.

Difference

This wave of Indian venture capital Going Local and Going Global is not difficult for us Chinese Internet observers and players to understand. The first half of the Indian Internet, characterized by hyperlocalization, is like the pole. In the second half of the domestic Internet to find opportunities in the “sinking market.” On the other hand, in recent years, more and more Chinese companies have begun to go abroad and find opportunities in overseas markets, which coincides with Going Global’s philosophy.

For domestic entrepreneurs who are familiar with the first half of the Chinese Internet game, it is especially important to understand the overseas market when “targeting” becomes the way to find overseas opportunities recognized by the majority. India and China have similar population bases, and there is considerable room for growth. When Chinese entrepreneurs enter India and try to establish a local platform company in the future, they must also clearly see the complexity of the Indian market. And infrastructure that is still to be improved. After all, in Bangalore, known as the “Indian Silicon Valley,” power outages are the norm. Needless to say, the cows that appear on the roadside will affect the traffic conditions that are already congested.

(Source: Photographed by the Indian team members)

Local VS Global? Choice of the first half of the Indian Internet

Local VS Global? Choice of the first half of the Indian Internet